That topped the Bond juggernaut Skyfall, which opened a week earlier with a first week total of $2.24 million.

Boys performance was considerably better than Neo's previous We Not Naughty 小孩不壞 (2012), which was released in January and opened slowly for a $276,000 (S$338,000) debut weekend, but ended with a decent $1.76 million (S$2.15 million) final gross. The distributors forecast that Boys will finish with over S$4 million ($3.26 million).

Boys claimed the record for an opening weekend by a Singaporean film from another Neo-directed title, Ah Long Pte Ltd 老師嫁老大 (2008), which took $1.21 million in 2008. Neo's top scoring film Money No Enough 2 錢不夠用２ (2008) opened with $971,000 (S$1.19 million) and finished on a cumulative gross of $3.98 million (S$4.87 million).

The budget for the pair has been reported as $2.45 million (S$3 million).

The idea for the film was reportedly proposed to Neo by the Ministry of Defence as a commemoration of Singapore's 45th year of National Service. Boys is a coming of age film portraying the evolution of manhood.